324 IRIDACEAE 



Eootstock Vi inch thick or less; dying leaves red-brown; seeds roughly angled, or spherical in 

 no. 3. 

 Stem 1% to 2 feet high; leaves 3% to 6^4 lines broad, strongly ribbed; pedicels about 



1 inch long; perianth-tube commonly % inch long 3. I, douglasiatui. 



Stem commonly less than 1 foot high; leaves 3 lines broad or less, thickened, ribs less 

 prominent. 



Perianth-tube \Y-2 to 3% inches long; pedicels ^o inch long 4. 1. macrosiphon. 



Perianth-tube % inch long; pedicels % to 3 inches long 5. /. hartwegii. 



1. I. longipetala Herbert. Coast Ibis. Stem very stout, compressed, 1 to 

 2 feet high ; leaves 4 to 6 lines broad, equaling or rather exceeding the flower- 

 peduncles, turning gray or yellow-brown when dying; pedicels 1/2 to S^/o inches 

 long; bracts scarious at apex, 2yo to 4 inches long, % to 1% inches broad (when 

 spread out) ; sepals white, veined with violet, or violet above, 3 inches long, ly^ 

 to 1% inches broad, narrowed to a short claw, the claw with a very prominent 

 ventral ridge which disappears in the middle of the blade; petals light violet, 

 2% inches long, 6 to 7 lines wide; capsule narrowed at each end, 2 inches long; 

 seeds pyriform. 



Wet heavy soil, usuall.v forming dense colonies: coastal region from San 

 Francisco Bay to IMonterey Co. Apr. 



Locs. — Point Isabel, Contra Costa Co., Davy; Bald Peak, Berkeley Hills, Hall; South San 

 Francisco, C. F. Baker 348; Monterey, F. ChUrado 609. 



Eefs. — Iris longipetala Herbert; H. & A. Bot. Beech. 395 (1841), type from Cal., 

 DouoJas: Hook. Bot. Mag. t. .5298 (18B2); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 129 (1901); Dvkes, The 

 Genus Iris, 89 (1913). 



2. I. missouriensis Nutt. Western Blue Flag. Stem 10 to 24 inches high, 

 exceeding the leaves (or a few leaves scarcely longer), nearly naked except at 

 base ; rootstoek short, thick ; leaves 2 to 4 lines wide, turning gray or .yellow- 

 brown wlien dying ; bracts usually opposite, commonly membranous and straw- 

 color, or sometimes thin, herbaceous; pedicels (1 or") 2 to 4 inches long; sepals 

 whitish or pale blue, veined with purple and often with a central yellowish spot ; 

 petals pale blue to white, 2 to 2Vi; inches long, the tube about 14 i'lch long; capsule 

 11/4 to 3 inches long, grooved trough-wise on each face, cylindric in outline, or 

 narrowed to both apex and base ; seeds globular to pyriform. 



]\Ioist places, meadows or wet flats, high mountains: Sierra Nevada (mostly 

 on the crest and east slope, rare on the west slope), southerly to the San Ber- 

 nardino Mts., east to ea.stern Inyo Co., north to Modoc Co., thence southwesterly 

 to the inner North Coast Range in Solano Co. in low valleys. Throughout the 

 Great Basin and north to British Columbia and Dakota. July. 



Locs.— Bear Valley. San Bernardino Mts., Eall 1024; Bitter Creek, Mt. Pinos, HaU 6512; 

 Silver Caiion, White Mts., Jepson 7208; Snow Creek, Mariposa Co., Congdon; Hetch-Hetchy, 

 Jepson 34(il; Walker Lake, Mono Co., Jepson 4440; Kennedy Lake, Tuolumne Co., A. L. 

 Grant; Sonora Pass, zi. L. Grant 307; Horse Lake, Lassen Co.. Jepson 7811; Hat Creek, Alma 

 Ames; Mt. Bidwell, Manning 56; Egg Lake, If. S. Baler; Goose Lake Valley, R. M. Aiistin 

 75; upper Fall Eiver Valley, Jepson 5769; Quartz Valley, Siskiyou Co., Butler 1467; Black 

 Butte, Mendocino Co., IV. TV. Macl'ie; Mendocino Range near Hopland, Jepson 7645; Rock- 

 ville, w. Solano Co., Jepson 8247. 



Eefs. — Iris missouriensis Nutt. Jour. Acad. Phila. 7:58 (1834), type loc. sources of the 

 Missouri Eiver, Wyeth; Baker, Bot. Mag. t. 6579 (1881) ; Dykes, Genus Iris, 90 (1913). 



3. I. douglasiana Herbert. Mountain Iris. Stem I14 to 2 feet high, much 

 exceeded by llie (3 to 9 lines wide) basal leaves, these reddisli at base; bracts 

 broader and less acuminate than in I. raacrosiphon ; flowers 2 or 3 in a pair of 

 bracts, mostly cream-color, lavender or azure, often purple or lilac, the pedicels 

 commonly 1 (i/^ to II/4) inches long; perianth-tube usually lA sometimes to l^A 

 inches long; petals 2 to 3 inches long; capsule narrowly oblong, sharply angled, 

 1% to 2 inches long; seeds spherical (or obovoid). 



Common in the Redwood belt and on chaparral slopes in the f'oast Ranges 

 near the coast from ilonterey Co. northwards; rare in the northern Sierra 



